15 Facts About Alexander Archipenko

Alexander Archipenko was one of the first to apply the principles of Cubism to architecture, analyzing human figures into geometrical forms.

Alexander Archipenko was born in Kyiv in 1887, to Porfiry Antonowych Archipenko and Poroskowia Vassylivna Machowa Archipenko; he was the younger brother of Eugene Archipenko.

Alexander Archipenko then moved to Moscow where he had a chance to exhibit his work in some group shows.

Alexander Archipenko moved to Paris in 1908 and quickly enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, which he left after a few weeks.

Alexander Archipenko was a resident in the artist's colony La Ruche, among emigre Ukrainian artists: Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine, Sonia Delaunay-Terk, and Nathan Altman.

In 1912, Alexander Archipenko had his first personal exhibition at the Museum Folkwang at Hagen in Germany, and from 1912 to 1914 he was teaching at his own Art School in Paris.

In 1922 Alexander Archipenko participated in the First Russian Art Exhibition in the Gallery van Diemen in Berlin together with Aleksandra Ekster, Kazimir Malevich, Solomon Nikritin, El Lissitzky, and others.

Alexander Archipenko contributed the most to the success of the Ukrainian pavilion.

Alexander Archipenko's works occupied one room and were valued at $25,000.

In 1936 Alexander Archipenko participated in an exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art in New York as well as numerous exhibitions across Europe and other places in the US He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1962.

Alexander Archipenko died on February 25,1964, in New York City.

Alexander Archipenko is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.

Alexander Archipenko departed from the neo-classical sculpture of his time, using faceted planes and negative space to create a new way of looking at the human figure, showing a number of views of the subject simultaneously.

Alexander Archipenko began work on a smaller prototype of the statue in 1964, but died before the work was finished, leaving his wife to oversee its completion.

Alexander Archipenko's portrait is depicted on the reverse of the coin.